Commodity Procurement & Supply Chain Management

TransCentury Associates has a long history of working with USAID as a key partner across the Middle East and Africa delivering educational, health and technology services, supplies, country-wide vaccine cold chain, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, spare parts, logistics management and inventory control. A successful, cost-effective Procurement Services Agent (PSA) for over 30 years, TCA:

  • Tailors service to local needs (culture/language/context)
  • Scales as required with specialists who understand the specifics of local markets
  • Leverages its regional office in Egypt to reduce operational costs

TCA can provide complete or selected services as necessary. Using a PSA simplifies the procurement process by providing clients with the best and most appropriate commodities and equipment at the most advantageous prices while saving time and ensuring that all donor, sponsor and/or provider’s procurement rules and regulations are met.

We develop a tracking system for each project that allows TCA as well as clients to track procurement progress and shipping status at any time.  We provide the project with a GANTT chart that explains each procurement’s time line.  TCA has always delivered within tight deadlines and met challenging milestones. With an impressive track record of over 30 years TCA has never been protested. 

Commodities procured range from IT equipment, furniture, pharmaceutical products (vaccines, medications, etc.), medical equipment to motor vehicles and heavy equipment. TCA has worked on several major USAID funded projects in various countries and extensively in Egypt. Although it is demonstrably able to handle large projects, TCA has the comparative advantage of being a small business firm which helps contractors meet their contractual requirements.

TCA’s Supply Chain Management  expertise effectively handles cost and time involved in the interconnected businesses of product and service packages required by the end customer. 

  • Our services cover the request, order, delivery and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and goods from need to delivery.
  • TCA designs, plans, controls and monitors the supply chain activities with the objective of synchronizing supply with demand in a way that reduces effort, decreases cost and saves time.
  • TCA’s long time contacts and track record in freight shipping allows it in a post-COVID period to still reasonably ship at better-than-market time and cost.
  • TCA makes sure that goods coming from various sources have adequate delivery dates to avoid delays caused by late shipments as well as reducing warehousing cost.
  • TCA sorts out the various goods received and prepares the lots going to every destination in accordance with each end user needs. A packing list is generated for each destination to make it easier for recipients to sign for goods received.
  • Arranging for the distribution route is important to minimize time and cost.
  • TCA has the expertise to handle procurement and distribution in the most delicate situations making sure that critically needed goods are available on time and goods with short shelf life or high storage costs are not ordered in excess of normal consumption.

Sample Projects

  • USAID Worldwide – Sustainable Urban Management (SUM II) IQC – Mendez England – TCA was a subcontractor to Mendez England for providing such services as procurement services, training, and small grants under contract program of USAID for worldwide mission support in the areas of urbanization, management, environment and health.
  • USAID Egypt – National Book Program (SEMP-A)– TCA as a subcontractor of Al-Shorouk Publishing Warehouse – TCA managed logistics, warehousing, distribution, transportation, receiving and delivery of more than 80,000 books to 20,000 schools in over 27 governorates– in Egypt.
  • USAID Pakistan – ED Links in Pakistan – Links to Learning – American Institute for Research (AIR) – Procurement Management Services including logistics, warehousing and inventory control.
  • USAID Egypt – Healthy Mother Healthy Child Results Package – John Snow Inc. (JSI) – TCA was subcontracted by JSI to manage the procurement, installation as well as coordinate local institutional capacity training for the use of computers, printers, medical equipment and supplies, etc.
  • USAID Jordan – Primary Health Care Improvement Project (PHCI) – Abt Associates, Jordan – TCA was subcontracted by Abt Associates in Jordan for the procurement of computers, printers, medical equipment and supplies, audiovisual equipment, furniture and vans.  TCA was also responsible for the logistics management, storage, inventory control, distribution and monitoring re-ordering levels.
  • USAID Egypt – Child Survival Project – Clark Atlanta University – TCA was subcontracted by Clark Atlanta University to handle procurement and distribution of medical equipment and supplies including a country wide cold chain for hepatitis B vaccines under the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) component.
  • USAID Iraq – Health Systems Strengthening in Post Conflict Iraq (HSS) – Abt Associates, Iraq – TCA procured all needed medical equipment, supplies, drugs and pharmaceuticals as part of a project aiming to strengthen the overall health sector in Iraq.
  • USAID Egypt – Egyptian Ministry of Health Diarrhea Control Project and Medical Equipment – TCA assisted in the project’s needs assessment, specs development, tender development, procurement, selection, award, shipping, customs clearance, shipping and installation.
  • USAID West Bank – Mother Child Health and Nutrition Project (Hanan) – John Snow Inc. (JSI) – West Bank and Gaza – TCA was hired to conduct an onsite assessment of the procurement procedures of Hanan project and advise on the required corrective measures.
  • USAID Egypt – Business Information Highway Project – American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt – TCA acted as the Procurement Services Agent (PSA) responsible for the procurement of the IT equipment and the required software needed for the establishment of an e-commerce center to serve the business community.
  • USAID Worldwide – Support Which Implements Fast Transition (SWIFT II) IQC PADCO – TCA was a subcontractor to PADCO for providing procurement services, training, small grants under contract program of USAID for worldwide mission support in the areas of post conflict environments.
  • USAID Egypt – University Linkages Project (ULP II) – Mendez England & Associates – TSA acted as a procurement services agent for all commodities required to perform collaborative applied research work between 60 Egyptian university professors and US university counterparts.
  • USAID Egypt – NGO Service Center – Save the Children – Twenty individual associations receiving grants under the supervision of the NGO service center required procurement of IT equipment as well as medical equipment.
  • European Commission/SAAP/PAO/Egypt – Ministry of International Cooperation (MIC) – Procurement Consultancy for furniture, management of tender document development, specifications review, analysis and award of furniture procurement.
  • The World Bank/European Investment Bank/Japanese Bank for International Cooperation/The French Development Agency/The European Commission/The Government of Finland/The Government of Egypt – Egyptian Pollution Abatement Project (EPAP II) in Egypt – TCA prepared a procurement manual and procurement training material.
  • Survey for the Manpower Assessment Project in Sudan based on which training needs were determined. 
  • Yemen Arab Republic Rural Water Program strengthening the management capabilities of the Rural Water Supply Department by creating a field construction wing for the department through in-service training of departmental counterparts. 
  • Renewable Energy Project of Sudan and the Public Works Project of Yemen – designed and coordinated training programs for the projects and placed and supervised the trainees in Egypt, monitored their performance and supported them logistically. 
  • Training Needs Assessments of Egypt private and public companies to be privatized. This study covered Cairo and Alexandria funded by USAID.
  • Providing accounting and financial management workshop series for hundreds of staff of many US private organizations including functional accounting systems, allocation and segregation of costs, overhead, donor accountability, compliance with regulations, computerization, etc.